A DAY'S WORTH
Chapter 10
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to their respective owners.
-ADW-
2nd November 2011
Belarus, USSR
"Where is Harry?" Natasha asked and Madame B an eyebrow.
"Who...oh you mean your English boyfriend?" She smiled. "He wasn't important, so Yelena shot him in the head."
Natasha stared at them for a moment, not willing to believe what they were saying before she looked back at Ombra. She barely managed to make out his head shaking and managed to stop herself from breathing a sigh of relief.
"You have no idea what you have done."
"Perhaps not." Madame B said stepping closer to her. Natasha could almost feel her eyes through the thin material that was covering her naked body. "But we know what we shall do to you. Tasha."
The last word was whispered directly in her ear and Natasha felt her entire body freeze up. Only one person ever called her that and she had killed him herself. Going by the knowing look in the old crone's eyes, then it could only mean that she was wrong.
Her body was sluggish, and she could barely move her head but if He was here, then it was imparative that she got out of here as soon as possible. That was easier said than done though, there was no way she was going to be able to fight her way out if here, especially not in this condition. Her eyes were pulled back to where she had seen Ombra but he was gone and she wondered where he had disappeared to.
As if in answer, the lights suddenly went out. A second later, there was a loud explosion and a bright flash briefly illuminated the room as the building directly opposite went up in flames. From her memory, that was where most of the weapons were kept.
"Keep her here." Madame B snapped at Yelena before she matched out of the room. Taskmaster was already out of the door.
The moment the door closed, the lights came back illuminating the entire room and Natasha was finally able to see more of what was inside. She didn't understand much but she saw a chair with several wires connected to it looking straight out of a science fiction movie.
"Don't worry, you will be getting intimate with it soon enough." Yelena smiled.
"Why?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?" Yelena scoffed. "After what you did to me?"
"You know why I did it."
"Oh, I do. You fancy yourself a Hero don't you, Natasha?" The blode leaned towards her. "Well, you will be doing alot of that soon enough."
"You made a very big enemy when you killed Harry."
Yelena's retort was interrupted by sounds of fighting outside the room. Yelena spun around, pulling out two guns from her belt and pointed them at the door just as the sounds from outside stopped.
Taking a stance, the Russian spy waited with both guns pointed at the locked door. There was a sound of approaching boots which halted at the door. It clicked open and almost agonizingly slowly, with an ominous creak opened all the way to reveal the form of Harry Potter, looking no different than he had when they left the J-Mansion that morning.
Well, except for the daggers in both of his hands that were dripping with blood.
"I killed_" Yelena was cut off as Harry hurled the two daggers at her that came unnaturally fast. She was a trained Black Widow op though and easily dodged the two daggers despite their speed. Only she wasn't fast enough to dodge the dropkick having not expected Harry to move that fast.
Yelena was sent flying over Natasha's bed but not high enough which made her go with the thin sheet that had been covering her in an attempt to get something to hold. Harry leaped over the bed, so fast that Natasha was having a hard time following him and landed on Yelena's neck just as the blonde was rising the guns to fire. He caught her in a double-leg neck grapple, a move Natasha considered her signature move though instead of trying to take down the woman like Natasha would, Harry jammed his hands into both sides of her neck.
Hands that suddenly had the daggers that had been embedded in the wall no more than a second ago. But then again, given his abilities, it wasn't that surprising.
"Great, now I have blood all over my hands." Harry grumbled as he stepped away from the other woman.
Natasha had known that Harry was a highly trained ex-spy but the speed at which he had taken down one of the most deadly women in Russia was quite honestly scary. And he hadn't even used his abilities.
"That was anticlimactic." Harry said as he wiped the blood from his hands with a hanky. He hummed in appreciation when he saw Natasha's naked form bound on the bed before he went to the corner and retrieved her suit and dumped it on her.
"By the way I've always wondered something, do you put anything underneath that suit?" Harry asked and Natasha just glared at him. "Well, get dressed, I've got a bunch of fools to kill."
Her bindings fell away and Natasha sluggishly got into the suit. Harry was just leaning on the wall leering at her so she decided to give him a show though given how uncoordinated her body was, it wasn't what she would consider her best performance.
When she was done taking stock of everything in her utility belt, she turned to Harry who tossed her a vial. "Take that, it should give you control of your body for an hour or two."
"Does it taste as disgusting as the one you gave me the other day."
"Yeah." There was shouting outside the door and Harry turned to her. "So, I have got to go. I could give you something to take you_"
"No, I need to do something that I should have done long ago." Natasha grimaced as she swallowed the pepper-up potion.
"Declare your undying love for me?"
"What, ewe gross!" Natasha looked disgusted by the mere idea.
"Ok that was mean." Harry grumbled.
"I need to shut this place down." Natasha said. "I know there are over fifty kids being brainwashed at this facility. Thankfully, the most recent program started two weeks ago."
"And you know this how?"
"Fury has been trying to find a way of shutting it down but he keeps getting blocked by the higher-ups."
"I don't think I like them very much." Harry turned to the metallic door before he glanced back to her. "You're ready?"
Natasha nooded, making sure the two guns in her arms were cocked.
Harry came and stood next to the door for cover and Natasha stood next to him. He made a gesture with his had and the door was wrenched from the wall and pulled into the room though it stayed standing. At the movement of the door, the men outside opened fire. The bullets bounced off the enhanced steel for a moment before it stopped, probably realizing that they were wasting ammo.
Harry rolled his eyes before he made another gesture and the door flew forward. Gunfire followed the door's movement even as shouts of pain were heard from the hall way. Natasha though didn't wait for a signal. The moment the door flew through what used to be the doorway, she was already moving.
She rolled forward and started shooting even before she could straighten. Her targets were following the door so she easily took our six out of the eleven that had survived being crushed by the door.
Before she could turn to the others, the two nearest men fell to the ground each with a knife in their neck. And then Harry was in the midst of the other three. Before they could get off even one shot, Harry slashed the neck of the one on his left, just as he pushed the one on his right into the wall. He ducked a swipe from the third guy, pulled his gun from him and kneed him in the chest. He grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into his disoriented counterpart sending them into the wall. Using the same gun he had grabbed, he shot off twice and caught both of them right in the forehead.
It took him less time that it took for her to stand up from her crouch.
"Damn Harry." Natasha breathed.
"You like?" Harry grinned back at her but his expression soon turned serious. "Do you know where the kids are?"
Natasha nodded.
"Lead the way."
The next door opened to a big dorm room with rows of beds. Natasha remembered having slept here in her first few weeks before the initial sorting.
They walked through the corridor even as a large explosion rocked the building from outside. They reached another hallway with one door in the middle that led outside and the other at the extreme end that led to the ballroom, one that Natasha hated with a passion.
Making sure Harry was behind her, she nodded at him and the locked door flew off its hinges into the room. There was no sound from without and she gestured for him to follow him.
She had taken about six steps into the room when an arrow landed next to her feet. She had seen Clint with his little toys long enough to know which arrow did what so she wasted no time leaping away from the exploding arrow. Only she wasn't fast enough and the force from the explosion flung her backwards and straight into the wall.
Her vision was blurry even as she made out Harry engaging the figure of the Taskmaster. She shook her head and focused on her breathing as things became a little clear. The two combatats were moving fast, but it wasn't like she was a stranger to fast action.
Taskmaster was on the offensive and Harry was barely managing to keep himself from getting hit. He was using everything from hand to his knees and legs though none managed to hit. Harry was slowly being driven to the wall as he evaded punch after punch while the Taskmaster reduced the space between them, something Captain. American usually did as he was almost unparalleled in close combat.
Natasha made to stand to go and help the British only for her right her to lose her balance and she found herself back to the floor.
With his back now on the wall, Harry dodged one punch only to run into another. Taskmaster kicked his right kneecap sending him on one knee while pulling an arrow from the quiver which he promptly jammed into Harry's neck. Natasha watched in horror as Harry gagged on his own blood while clutching at the arrow protruding from his neck, his movements becoming weaker untill he fell down dead in a puddle of blood, his emeral eyes looking directly at her.
And then he winked at her and disappeared.
Taskmaster stumbled, looking at the place Harry had vanished in what Natasha could only assume was astonishment.
"You are a curious man, Anthony Masters." Harry said from across the room. "Your abilities even more so."
"How did you do that?"
"I was once told by a little girl called Nebula that everyone is born special in one way or another." Harry said as he took a couple of steps forward. "But there are those that are more special than others. Me and you fall among the latter."
Taskmaster pressed a button on his gauntlet and the bow that had fallen on the ground flew to his gloved hand.
"You are nothing like me young man." He notched an arrow.
"No, I am something else entirely." Harry's body dissolved when the arrow hit him in the chest before he reappeared in another position. "Something you have never met before_"
Taskmaster notched arrow after arrow and the same thing happened over and over and it wasn't untill the last arrow in the quiver was shot that Harry stopped disappearing.
"And given that you are about to die." Harry pulled out the arrow from his chest. "Something you will never see again."
This time when he appeared, it was behind Taskmaster. The man spun around but Harry grabbed him by the neck and choke slammed him into the floor with such force that a crack appeared. With surprising strength, Harry lifted him again to his feet and sent him running face first into the wall. He stepped back and let the man stagger back to his feet. The skull mask was cracked and one half had fallen off.
"Go find the kids, Nat. Jack will join you when you get out of the building." Harry took a stance. Natasha nodded, having recovered enough while Harry played hide and seek with Taskmaster.
She knew where the kids were, getting to them was going to be the problem but if Jack Daniels fought even half as Harry did, then it shouldn't be too hard. Before moving out the door, she saw Tony Masters charge at Harry who spun on the ground and swept his feet from under him. Even as he fell down though, the suited man managed to get in a kick to the side of the head catching Harry off-guard and the two fell. Only to kick back to their feet in perfect sync.
"This is going to be fun."
That was what she heard last from Harry before she slipped out. She found dead bodies in the courtyard that were illuminated by burning buildings. Even with the dead, moved through the few shadows, not wanting to be seen even if the facility seemed to either have been deserted or all the common occupants were dead.
When she building she had been going for, she found Jack standing on the steps stuffing his face. He was dressed in all black, his long trenchcoat, very similar to Fury's billowing in the wind. She could see stains of blood even on the black surfaces and wondered how Harry managed to not get any on himself.
"Where is everyone?"
"Dead. Well, most of them are even though a number of them are hiding in there." He pointed to the door behind him. "Oh and this guy wanted to meet you."
He gestured at a head of a person that she hadn't seen before and Natasha gulped despite herself.
"Friend of yours I take it?"
"He should be dead."
"He is now. Not that he was looking very alive before." Jack said. "Seemed really desperate to get to you but he was ordered by that old bint to kill me first before she took off to hide. It didn't work out well for him."
"His name is Ivan Petrovich." Natasha glared at the almost rotting face of her former mentor. "He practically raised me before he brought me here to be part of the Black Widow ops. He shouldn't be here though as I practically destroyed his entire body."
"Uhm, well he was wearing some suit that was giving me the creeps even after killing him." Jack said hesitantly. "I imagine Harry will want to look at it later."
"Even then, there is no kind of tech that could bring him back." Natasha shook her head. "The suit was probably only keeping him from decaying."
"Yeah, it wasn't doing a very good job at it." Jack said as he pulled some kind of highly modified gun from with in his trenchcoat. How he had kept it there, she could only imagine. "Neither is this door doing any protecting to those inside."
Jack pulled the trigger and there was a boom and a portion of the wall exploded forming a large enough hole to fit a small car. "Still needs work on the sound but it's efficient enough."
Natasha watched as Jack matched through the newly created hole in the wall without a care in the world. Natasha glanced at the rotting head of her mentor one last time knowing that there was alot more going on with his reappearance and matched after Harry's friend.
MEANWHILE
Harry ducked a punch and deflected another and punched his opponet hard in the face which sent him staggering. He kicked him in the chest sending him to the floor. Anthony Masters pushed himself back to his feet and was already attacking even as Harry walked forward.
He pointed his glowing gauntlet at Harry but he made a gesture and it was ripped off. Harry easily caught the punch that came to his face and crushed it forcing his opponet to his knees. "You're tired, your body is no longer able to keep up with your brain."
The man glared at him, his bloody face looking weird without the skull mask and hood. Staring at the man he had just beaten up, Harry shook his head.
"I can help you, Tony." Harry said. "You are dying and you know it. The strain on your body, your nerves, every single time you use your abilities you lose a part of yourself."
"There is nothing you can do about me." The man replied, not even bothering to get up this time. "And I don't need anyone's help. If you are going to kill me, I suggest you get on with it."
"No, I am not." Harry replied. "I know you are a smart man, Mr. Masters. Come and find me when you are ready to accept the truth."
Harry walked away from the man, having planted very specific instructions in the man's mind. Even if the man's sense of identity disappeared, he will never at anyone point even consider hurting someone Harry cares about even indirectly. And he would look for Harry.
When Harry found Jack and Natasha, the two were standing outside a locked door. The door had a number of marks, clearly from Jack's J-Trump. Harry had failed Jake in never letting Jack name anything they came up with.
"I see you two were quite busy." Harry say d as he looked at all the dead bodies in the room.
"Well this baby was calling for blood." Jack replied running a hand on the gun. "I couldn't find it in myself to deny her."
"J-Trump is female?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Of course, isn't she a beauty?" Jack cooed and Natasha rolled her eyes.
"This is disturbing."
"Tell me about it. So what happened to the other kids?"
"Oh they are safe, they have been taken somewhere to be transferred to a SHIELD facility nearby." Natasha replied.
"Ok, then what are we waiting for?"
"Those buggers went to great lengths to protect whatever is in there." Jack said. "Even the ugly bint over there fought like her sole purpose of living was to keep it shut."
Harry looked at the woman in question. Madame B's skin was black, and looked like it was already rotting. Harry caught a wisp of something, something he hadn't smelt in years and it was coming from the body. Turning to look at the door of the room, Harry let his magical senses free and he found that the feeling from the body was hundreds of times more pronounced on the door and the walls of the room.
Dark Magic.
Harry glanced at Jack and his friend knew exactly what he wanted. He put back the J-TRUMP in his trenchcoat and tapped on his ring. The next instant, Ombra was standing in his place.
"What's happening?" Natasha asked warily even as Ombra shepherded her away from the door.
"Whatever you will see next, I am going to ask you to keep quiet about it." Harry said seriously. "If you can't then you will have to leave."
"Why?"
"So you can have plausible deniability." Harry told her. "I know how loyal you are to Fury and I would rather he doesn't get involved in this untill I feel it's time."
Natasha looked at Harry's emeralds before turning to the blue orbs that were Ombra's eyes. She knew she had been trusted a lot by Harry today with everything that she had been allowed to see. Things these two had managed to keep to themselves all this time. No matter how much she wanted to demand answers, she knew it would be pushing it, not to mention they had decided to trust her this far.
"I'll leave." Natasha nodded though her voice was clear that she will be waiting for an explanation. "I should be calling in SHIELD to pick the girls."
"What will you tell them happened here?"
"I don't know, I will come up with something." Natasha smiled at them. "Thanks for coming for me, both of you."
"Any time." Harry replied. "I guess I'll be seeing you around?"
"Yeah, we have alot to talk about." With that, she walked out of the room as she switched on the SHIELD comm. Even From here, they could hear Fury shouting at her.
"You may want to take a step or two back." Harry said as the Elder Wand materialized in his hands. "Whatever is in there is Darker than anything I've seen before."
The wand moved as he cast numerous spells all to make him batter understand the kind of magic in the air. It was slightly familiar, having met magic like it when he and Luna had dropped by the Egyptian tombs, the parts where no wizard or goblin dared to go.
"Necromancy." Harry mused. "Only more condensed and vile than what we saw in Egypt."
With the nature of the magic established, it wasn't that hard to begin dispelling it. Harry used the Elder Wand to trace runes in the air. Cleanse, purify, purge, lustrate, shrive, illuminate, destroy.
"Bubble-head." Harry called to his friend and the near invisible bubble appeared around his head just as Ombra's suit provided one of his own.
The seven runes arranged themselves as they kept doubling in number before they covered the entire room. Black mist started coming off the walls, from the closed room and the door itself untill it condensed into a humanoid shape though clearly it wasn't a human. There were horns on its forehead, long fangs and claws on it's hands and the demonic look was completed by a long point tail.
The muscular creature shrieked at Harry before it leaped at him. A blasting curse in the chest and it exploded before dissolving into nothing, only its pained cries echoing in the room showed any sign of it ever being there.
When the echoes died off, the door slowly opened with an ominous creak. Harry glanced at Ombra and signalled for him to wait outside before he slowly entered the room, Wand held tightly in his grip.
The room was dark. No windows, no ventilators and the only light there was the one coming from the open door. A ball of light from Harry's wand illuminated the room to reveal a young girl hunching onto herself in the corner of the room. She was was wearing some tattered dress and looked like she would be attacking in the next breath.
"Hey." Harry said softly, raising his hands. "My name is Harry and I am here to help you, alright?"
The girl raised her head, her dirty blonde curls tumbling to the side to reveal an equally dirty face. All the dirt aside, she was quite pretty and clearly a Russian, sharp features and a long pointed nose similar to Natasha's. He blue eyes were hard though, as they bored into Harry as if reading his very soul. He felt a brush at the edge of his occulmency shoelds and he projected his honesty and desire to help her.
He took a few steps towards her as she continued staring at him. Puzzled that she couldn't read his mind. "I have an ability to help me protect my privacy, that's why you can't get through."
She was surprised that he had caught her. "Are you...like me?"
She asked quietly, her voice scratchy.
"I can feel that we have something in common." Harry nodded. "Why don't you tell me your name and we shall help you find your family."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"On your magic?" Harry blinked. "I can feel it."
"On my magic." Harry agreed and felt the bind take place as the girl stood up. She slowly walked forward untill she was standing before him. Harry noted that she probably no older than Jenny even though his little girl had a couple of questions inches on her.
She streched her hand and Harry shook it.
"Illyana. Illyana Rasputin." She said firmly, blue eyes staring at him in a mixture of fear and awe. "It is nice to finally meet you Harry Potter."
-ADW-
AN: Hi guys, this chapter was a pain to write. I have absolutely idea why I even had to include all this but I guess it worked out.
As you have probably noticed, am not very good at writing action scenes. Tell me what you think and I will see what to adjust.
I guess I should clear out some things. Illyana knows about Harry, from where is yet to be seen but we shall find out next chapter. Next chapter we shall meet another Major character and begin the Avengers arc. That is a promise.
Obviously there will be consquences that Harry and Jack will have to deal with concerning what happened here. Should be fun.
Till then, Stay home, stay safe.